shoomlah answered:"I usually think about it like this: would you feel guilty if someone tracked down your source material and called you out on it? If that’s the case, you proooobably want to dilute your reference library a little more."

"You generally want to saturate your brain with your reference, allowing you to really understand the structure and dynamics of the thing you’re drawing – not just mimicking exactly what you’re seeing on the flat picture plane. You’ll get a pretty good drawing of folds/draping fabric if you copy a single reference photo, sure, but I can almost guarantee that working from several similar (but different) photos means that you’ll end up with something far more original – and, bonus, you’ll probably understand more about the reference material in the process."

graphitetroll writes:Everyone expects there to always be music to listen to, and movies to watch, and video games to play, and cartoons to plop their kids in front of, and watercolor paintings on dentists’ walls, and gaudy desktop wallpapers, but. No one wants to. Pay. Artists.